Breakfast time Bombshells
Hermione's alarms went off early in the morning on Monday. She wanted to say goodbye to her parents before her portkey left to take her back to Hogwarts.
She dressed for the day, then went downstairs hoping her parents were still in the dining room. When she entered the room and saw both of them at the table she couldn’t help but smile.
“Sweetheart, I wasn’t sure if we were going to see you this morning.”
“Good morning, mum. I wanted to come, and say goodbye before I left.”
Both of her parents stood, and gave her hugs before she left. She went back upstairs to her bedroom, and left via portkey from there. At precisely 7:30, she felt the familiar grip at her navel, and she was quickly transported to the Headmistress’ office at Hogwarts.
“Good morning Hermione.”
“Good morning Minerva. Good weekend?”
“Yes, it was nice and quiet. Yours?”
“It was fantastic.”
“Do you mind if I ask what you were up to?”
“Sure. I compete in equestrian events with British Equestrian, and the International Equestrian Federation, or FEI for short. This past weekend I competed in a discipline called eventing, where competitors have to compete in dressage, show jumping, and cross country for an overall score.”
“Oh wow. How long have you been doing that?”
“I’ve competed since before I came here. Once I was at Hogwarts, I competed on holiday breaks, and in the summer.”
The Headmistress looked at Hermione surprised.
“I was completely unaware that you kept yourself so busy, Hermione.”
“It’s absolutely necessary. If I’m not busy, then I’m bored and that never ends well.” Hermione laughed.
“I can only imagine the things you’ve gotten yourself into.” Minerva laughed. “Do you need anything before heading down to breakfast?”
“Could you possibly have a house elf bring me my cloak, and my school bag?”
“Of course. Miffy.”
A child sized house elf appeared with a snap.
“Yes headmistress.” Miffy said.
“Could you please pick up Miss Granger’s cloak, and school bag from Gryffindor tower?”
“Yes headmistress.”
The house elf snapped away, and returned with Hermione's cloak, and school bag in less than 30 seconds.
“Here is Missy Granger’s cloak, and school bag.”
“Thank you Miffy.” Hermione said as she grabbed her things from the little elf.
Once she had her school things, the little elf snapped away.
“Hermione, I think you should be aware that Miss Weasley, and Mr Longbottom were looking for you Friday evening. You may have questions from your friends when you get down to breakfast.”
“Shit.” Hermione said under her breath. “Sorry for my language.”
“We’re in private, I won’t count it against you.” Minerva laughed.
“Thank you!”
“Also Hermione, you may want to tell your friends what you’re up to. It seems to me there is a lot more to your life than what people have been led to believe, and if you don’t want to irreparably damage your friendships it may be time to share.”
She looked at the Headmistress, unsure what to say in response, but deep down she knew Minerva was correct. She was lying to her friends, nearly living a double life, and she couldn’t expect her friends to just ignore that.
“I think you’re right.” Hermione said with her head down.
“Now, shall we head down to breakfast?” The headmistress asked.
Hermione nodded her head, and followed the professor down to the Great Hall.
When they entered the hall, Hermione went right to her normal seat at the Gryffindor table. She was surprised that none of her friends were there yet. Oh well, she thought. She was hungry, and needed her tea, so she went ahead and started eating.
A few minutes later Hermione heard footsteps, and a loud female voice call out.
“What the heck Hermione!”
She knew that was the voice of an angry Ginny Weasley.
“Good morning, Ginny.”
“Really. Really! You think you can just leave for a weekend, not tell anyone where you went, and just come back with a Good Morning, Ginny?” The angry redhead shouted.
“To be fair, someone did know where I was.”
Ginny, and Neville who was standing next to her, rolled their eyes at Hermione’s response.
“Don’t get smart with me Hermione Granger! Yes the Headmistress may have known where you were, but not any of your peers. Neville and I were ready to report you missing to the Aurors’.”
“Ginny, I’m sorry, and I know I screwed up. Nothing was wrong. I had a previously scheduled obligation that I cleared with Professor McGonagall.”
“You know you can trust us with that information too, it's beginning to feel like you’re sneaking around.” Ginny said, quietly pointing to herself and Neville.
“Hermione, you can tell me anything. I’ll happily keep it private. You shouldn’t have to hold everything so close.” Neville added reassuringly.
“Look, I’m sorry guys. I didn’t know how to explain where I was headed, so I just didn’t. Next time, and there will be a next time, I’ll do better to let you know that I’ll be gone so you don’t have to be concerned.”
“That’s all we ask.” Ginny said.
“I’ll try to do better.” Hermione concluded.
“Thank You.” Neville and Ginny said together.
“Do you want to tell us where you were?” Ginny asked.
“Sure why not.” Hermione said to Ginny, and Neville's surprise. She cast a muffliato around the trio, and shared a little about her weekend.
“So I’ve competed in equestrian sports since way before I came to Hogwarts. I was meant to compete at a higher level once I was done here, and a few of those competitions were already scheduled. That’s where I was this weekend.” Hermione shared.
Ginny’s eyes got big when she heard equestrian. Even in the magical world that was understood to be an expensive sport. Also, Ginny secretly loved horses, she had the opportunity to ride occasionally at her Aunt’s house but never was able to have one of her own.
“How did the competition go?” Ginny asked.
“Um, I competed on two horses. We placed first, and second.”
“Congratulations.” Neville said.
“Wow, out of how many people?” Ginny asked.
“I think it was out of 100 or so competitors.”
“Holy shit Hermione. So you’re really good?”
Hermione chuckled in response to Ginny’s statement.
“I was this weekend, but you never know how things will go.” Hermione said, making fun of herself.
“What discipline do you compete in? Some older pureblood families compete in equestrian sports Hermione. Have you run into anyone?” Neville added.
“I prefer eventing, and show jumping. This weekend was eventing. Also Nev, I’ve not run into anyone that I’m aware of.” She said now curious. “Also, can the two of you please keep this to yourselves?”
Ginny and Neville nodded in response to her request.
When she saw that Harry and Ron were walking into the hall, Hermione went ahead, and wandlessly canceled the muffliato.
“Hey Hermione.” Harry said politely, to which she responded in kind.
“Oh finally decided to show up. Did you?” Ron sneered at Hermione.
“Clearly you don’t care, so what is it to you Ronald?”
“Did you think that maybe some of us needed your help this weekend with homework?” He asked rudely.
“The last time I checked, I was allowed to come, and go at my personal leisure. Not yours.”
“What happened to you, Hermione? When did you become this selfish?”
“Let me get this straight Ronald.” Hermione took a deep breath before continuing.
“You expected me to give up my free time this weekend, to help you with your homework, and I’m the selfish one?” She asked rhetorically.
“Did you ask me for homework help at all leading up to this weekend?” She asked. Receiving no response from him, she continued.
“No, you did not. So you just assumed I would be available, at your whim to help you with your work?”
“You’re Hermione. What else do you have to do other than read books.” Ron responded rudely.
Ginny, and Neville looked at one another, waiting for Hermione to blow up.
“Contrary to what you may believe, Ronald, I do have a life, and family obligations outside of my books.”
“Okay sure Hermione.” Ron scoffed, and rolled his eyes.
“Just because you never cared to ask, or listen to me when I discussed my life outside of Hogwarts, doesn’t mean I don’t have one, Ronald.”
Ron rolled his eyes at Hermione’s statement, which further pissed her off.
“I turned to books, and studying because I never had to worry about the way they treated me, and the library was always an easy place to hide. You may not realize it Ronald, but whenever any of us brought up the muggle world, you always made snide remarks about how you thought the muggle world was awful, or how the magical world was better.” At the mention of any of us, Hermione gestured to her classmates who also spent time in the muggle world.
Harry, Dean, and Seamus all nodded their heads agreeing with Hermione.
“She’s right mate.” Seamus added. “Whenever I wanted to talk about football, you would scoff, and start talking about how quidditch was better. You even made fun of my football poster because it didn’t move like magical ones.”
Again Harry and Dean were nodding in agreement.
“Ron, I tried to invite you over at the end of the school year one year, and your exact words to me were “No thanks mate. Why would I want to spend time in the muggle world?” You made a lot of us feel like our lives outside of Hogwarts were worthless if we didn’t live in a magical household.” Dean said.
“The only magical thing I had to talk about was books, and school. So I threw myself into those, hoping it would be a way to make friends, and have conversations. By doing that I was labeled as a bookworm, and know it all? Absolutely.” Hermione laughed before continuing.
“To be honest, I was a complete swot, and a terrible communicator. But I decided our first year to just keep my magical, and non-magical lives private based on what I observed around me. Now was that the right decision? No, but it was the easy one.”
“Oh so the golden girl is a liar, and has been living a double life?” Ron said snidely, trying to get a rise out of her.
“Honestly a double life is the best word for it. Let me ask you this Ronald, or anyone, when have I lied about my muggle life?”
Unbeknownst to the Gryffindor’s, much of the Great Hall was paying attention to their rather loud conversation.
Ron stayed silent.
“I don’t recall hearing you talk much about your life outside of school. I know your parents are dentists, and that you always went on vacations in the summer, but other than that you didn’t talk about it much.” Harry said quietly.
The group around them came to a consensus that Harry had summarized what most of them knew about Hermione’s life.
“Thank you Harry.” Hermione said politely.
“I never went out of my way to talk about my life at home. When things were brought up, sure, I was vague. If you want to call it lying by omission then okay, I lied. I have to live with that, but tell me this Ronald, what does that have to do with you?”
“Well you shouldn’t have to lie to your boyfriend!”
“Ronald, when were you ever my boyfriend? We kissed once, and at no point in the last seven years did I ever agree to be your girlfriend.” She responded matter of factly.
“Yes, well you should’ve known you were mine after our fourth year. I thought you were just being stupid, you belong to me.” He yelled.
Hermione, Ginny, and Harry’s jaws dropped, along with most of the student population that was now listening to their conversation over breakfast.
“Ronald Weasley, I belong to no one. I am my own person. I have never in the past been your girlfriend, and for the sake of clarity, that will never happen in the future either.”
“You’re a crazy bitch Hermione. If that is even your real name.” Ron declared.
Everyone in the room gasped.
Hermione smiled her evil, vindictive smile.
“Uh oh.” Ginny said, noticing the look on Hermione’s face.
“Okay Ronald. If that’s how it’s going to be… I, Hermione Jean Granger, hereby swear on my magic, that I have never knowingly dated Ronald Bilius Weasley.”
The room shuddered with the finality of her magical oath.
“Lumos.” Her wand tip illuminated, showing she still had her magic.
“Nox.” She said, extinguishing her wand tip.
Ron’s face was quite red with embarrassment, as Hermione finished, and basically proved him as a liar in front of the entire school.
“Also Ronald, let me just say it here first. You’re on your own this year. I’m not going to help you with your homework, proofread your essays, or let you mooch off my work. If you can’t respect me, then you don’t deserve my help.” Hermione said, maintaining eye contact with Ron as she enunciated each word.
Ron got pale as he heard Hermione’s declaration.
Hermione picked up her things, and walked out of the now silent Great Hall flanked by Neville, and Ginny. As she was walking out, there was a sudden yell from the Slytherin table.
“Fuck yeah Hermione! You tell him!” Pansy shouted, breaking the silence.
The silence continued momentarily after Pansy’s statement, but soon there were multiple other female students shouting their support for Hermione, as she walked out of the Great Hall.